Daimler Trucks North America introduced its new autonomous Freightliner Inspiration Truck Tuesday night at Hoover Dam, using the historic dam as the world's largest projection screen in its dramatic premier.

"Thank you for looking at the impossible and finding a safe way to make it possible." That's what Nevada Gov. Brian Sondoval said to Daimler Trucks North America officials when he officially granted the first license for an autonomous commercial truck to operate on an open public highway in the United States.

A Volvo Group subsidiary is investing in Peloton Technology, which is working on a truck "platooning" system that would save fuel and reduce congestion by allowing trucks to travel in a close-following "platoon" on the highway.

A decade from now, Volvo trucks will be scanning the environment around the vehicle and warning a driver when collisions are imminent. The Swedish company has developed new safety technology that scans the environment around a truck and analyzes that data.

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute has been awarded two federal contracts worth a combined potential $55 million to further study safety efforts for commercial truck drivers and conduct research in the field of automated vehicles.

Daimler Trucks on Thursday shared its vision of the future of trucking trucks that can drive themselves, saying they could help solve the driver shortage problem -- but not by taking drivers out of trucks altogether. The autonomous truck project, called Mercedes-Benz Future Truck 2025, was demonstrated on a section of the A14 Autobahn.